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Britain annuls sanctions on Iranian entities, businessman

The British Treasury has announced the repeal of an asset freeze on five Iranian entities and an Iranian businessman following an EU court verdict, Press TV reported.

The announcement came after the General Court of the European Union annulled the sanctions against Iranian businessman and five firms, namely, Sorinet Commercial Trust (SCT), Sharif University of Technology, National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), Moallem Insurance Company (MIC) and Sina Bank.

The rulings in respect to the businessman, Sorinet Commercial Trust, Sharif University of Technology, and the NITC were passed on July 3, 2014.

The verdict regarding Moallem Insurance Company was handed down on July 10, 2014, while the decision on Sina Bank was issued on June 4, 2014.

Since the judgments were not appealed within the designated two months, they have now come into effect.

At the beginning of 2012, the US and EU imposed sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

On October 15, 2012, the EU foreign ministers reached an agreement on another round of sanctions against Iran.

The bans were imposed under the pretext of potential deviation toward non-civilian purposes in Iran's nuclear energy program. Iran has repeatedly denied the Western allegations against its nuclear energy program.

The new developments come as Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Russia, China, France, Britain and the US - plus Germany held their latest round of talks in New York on September 18-26 to work out a final agreement aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran's civilian nuclear energy program before a November 24 deadline.

Last November, Iran and the P5+1 clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. However, they agreed to extend their talks until November 24 as they remained divided on a number of key issues.